UK Energy Subsidy Fail

A cautionary tale out of the UK: after shoveling billions in subsidies for renewable energy and encouraging the closing of baseload coal-fired and nuclear power plants, the UK is now preparing to spend several hundred million pounds to subsidize electricity from . . . backup diesel generators. This is thought necessary to back up intermittent wind and solar installations, and because there’s going to be an electricity supply crunch in the years ahead. How many ways can you say “Epic Green Energy Failure”?

Britain is set to grant hundreds of millions of pounds in subsidies to highly polluting diesel generators as a way to help solve the energy supply crunch facing the country over the next 15 years.

If all of those registered are successful in their bids — which analysts believe is likely — it could cost the taxpayer £436m, provide enough energy to power more than 1m homes and emit several million tonnes of carbon a year.

The subsidies on offer are so appealing that even solar-power developers, which have recently had their own subsidies cut, are building diesel generation on their sites as a way of maximising their returns. . .

The UK is facing serious energy-supply difficulties over the next few years as old coal plants are taken offline without new power plants being built to replace them.

This will start happening in the U.S. in another few years if the Obama “Clean Power Plan” goes into effect.